After a bumpy journey, Liu Bang and his party arrived at Lu Ze's underground town. Lu Ze was very happy to see his brother-in-law and two little nephews, and after settling down with everyone, he asked about his sister's whereabouts, Liu Bang could only shake his head, so Lu Ze sent people around to inquire.

Later, the spies reported that Liu Taigong and Lu Pheasant were arrested by the Chu army.

In addition, although Taigong and Lu Pheasant were safe and sound in the end, the two-year captive career tempered Lu Pheasant's will and tempered her heart, and a simple and kind village woman became ruthless, which no one expected.

This news cast another shadow on Liu Bang's bad mood, and if Yi Yiyu used them as bargaining chips, it would be tricky.

The generals of the Han army learned that Liu Bang would not die in the catastrophe and was in Xiayi, and they all arrived in Xiayi with the remnants of the army one after another.

The town was bustling with activity.

Liu Bang saw that most of the generals were safe and sound, and he was a little relieved.

After the main leading comrades of the various systems of the Han army gathered in Xiayi, Liu Bang led the people to the west, collecting the Dangxian army on the way and arriving at Yu County.

In Yu County, after receiving the news of the advance of the Chu army, Liu Bang decided to convene a meeting.

The topic of the meeting was about the Battle of Pengcheng.

The first question is, who is responsible for the defeat of Pengcheng?

I thought that as soon as this question was raised, everyone would be speechless.

Unexpectedly, everyone is high-spirited, and they have carried forward the noble spirit of self-criticism, pushing the responsibility on their heads, deducting the basin on themselves, and even thinking that they can't make themselves stink, everyone can take as many crimes as they can, and the general with a bad mouth can't say that others can't make him blush, and his neck is thick, and he almost wants to beat someone.

Liu Bang saw that they were so noisy and unorthodox, although they were not afraid of taking responsibility, Liu Bang was still very pleased: if this is the case, what more can the husband ask for.

In order to prevent a hot scene, he slapped the table and shouted: Don't make noise!

The lobby was suddenly silent, and everyone looked at Liu Bang in a daze.

"This Pengcheng defeat, although all the Qing family has made mistakes, but the biggest fault is the widow, if it is not for the outnumbered people, how can they suffer such a big defeat! The widow has affected the Qing family. As he spoke, he couldn't help but cry.

Although Liu Bang is a master of acting, it can be seen that these tears are not smeared with chili oil.

He was truly repentant! For the hundreds of thousands of soldiers who died, for the families who were in prison, and for themselves whose future is uncertain.

Knowing that mistakes can be corrected, and good is great.

Seeing the boss like this, the younger brothers naturally couldn't bear it, and they all bowed down and choked up: The king, the king, the minister is guilty, the minister is guilty.

For a moment, the conference was filled with the atmosphere of a memorial service.

It is true that Pengcheng was defeated, and Liu Bang was inexorably responsible as the commander-in-chief, after occupying Pengcheng, he did not restrain his subordinates, purge the army, and not actively prepare for war, but drunk and dreamed of death, and indulged in drinking for fun, how could he not be defeated? Furthermore, he did not trust the general Han Xin and left him in the rear. If he was in Pengcheng, he wouldn't have been so badly defeated.

Liu Bang wiped his tears and said: This defeat has passed, let the past pass, although our army has suffered heavy losses, but the remaining strength is still there, you still need to rectify the morale and fight again in the future!

In a word, everyone was reassured, if they were to be investigated, no one would be able to escape the involvement.

This concludes the first question and the meeting moves on to the second agenda item.

Second question: What's next?

When everyone heard this question, they turned their heads one after another, some shook their heads, some sighed, and some were dazed, only Zhang Liang looked gloomy, as if he was thinking about something.

Discussions come and go, but no one comes forward to come up with an idea.

Liu Bang was anxious, so he said loudly: As long as he can help the widow, the widow would rather give him the land of Kanto. ”

There must be brave men under the heavy reward, Liu Bang is convinced of this truth.

The land can be divided, the property can be divided, and the beauties can also be divided, and the only thing that cannot be divided is the power in his hands, so he will not be stupid enough to say that the widow will give him the position of the king of Han. As long as you have the power in your hands, sooner or later you will have to come back what you have distributed.

Liu Bang looked around at the generals, although everyone had a sense of longing in their eyes, but no one dared to stand up.

At this time, Zhang Liang, who had been silent, finally stood up and said: "Jiujiang Wang Yingbu and Xiang Yu are not compatible, Peng Yue is according to Liang Zhuqi, they are all today's heroes, and they can be recruited for my use, and Han Xin, the general of our army, can be of great use, if the king can promise the land of Kanto to these three people, they will be grateful to the king and fight hard." ”

Zhang Liang already had an idea in his heart, but he was cautious, he usually didn't talk too much, and his words must have been carefully considered, he didn't like to be in the limelight, in order to avoid being hated.

Everyone talked about it, some said it should never be, and some said it might as well try.

said no, thinking that Yingbu and Peng Yue did not belong to the Han camp, and they were afraid of raising tigers.

said that it was okay, thinking that at present, Chu is strong and Han is weak, and it is necessary to unite and strengthen the reinforcements, otherwise there will be no way to live.

Since Zhang Liang followed Liu Bang, he has always obeyed Zhang Liang's words, but this time he had some doubts: Can these three people help me defeat Xiang Yu? Peng Yue has a little friendship and can handle it, but Yingbu has very little contact, can he be loyal to me? If you want to make great use of Han Xin, you must hand over all the military power to him, what if he is disobedient?

Zhang Liang saw Liu Bang's doubts and said: Now that Chu is strong and Han is weak, only by defeating the most powerful enemy first can he continue to take the next step.

Looking at Zhang Liang's firm eyes, Liu Bang finally made up his mind to close the coffin for the second question.

This plan was extremely important, and its implementation ultimately laid the cornerstone of the Han army's victory.

Needless to say, Peng Yue has a friendship with Liu Bang and is very easy to contact; Han Xin was originally his own general, and there was no problem. Then here's the problem!

What about Yingbu? How to make him rebel and return to Han?

It is clear to everyone that this is not an easy question. Chu is strong and Han is weak, coupled with the new defeat of the Han army, the future is uncertain, you have to persuade the generals of the other camp to come to Shun at this time, it is by no means an easy task, if you don't get the lobbyist to come to the door, there will be no return.

Liu Bang looked around at everyone and asked, "Who can lobby the king of Jiujiang for the widow?" ”

As soon as the words fell, a confessor (official name) came out, his name was Sui He, and he was not famous in the Han army.

When everyone saw that a little confessor had such courage, they couldn't help but be impressed.

Liu Bang was very happy, so he sent him as an envoy to the fiefdom of the king of Jiujiang as an envoy to the king of Jiujiang, and transferred 2,000 soldiers to accompany him to form a group to fool around.

Lobbying is a very dangerous job, and if you fail to lobby, it is easy to whimper. If the other party wants to turn his face, the first thing is to take the messenger to open the knife.

Wealth and danger are sought!

The three problems were successfully resolved, and the conference was successfully concluded. The Han army reorganized its soldiers and horses and collected the remnants.

Soon, the Chu-Han War entered the second stage - stalemate.

After He led a team to the Yingbu station, Liu Bang sent an envoy to contact Peng Yue. He returned to Xingyang.

As soon as Liu Bang stepped into the Xingyang Han Palace with his front foot, someone followed him with his back foot. I saw that the man's face was full of tears, and he staggered to Liu Bang, knelt down and cried.

Liu Bang took a closer look, and it turned out to be the tomb of the countryman.

"Brother Wang, why are you doing this?"

"King Han, King Han, you want to be the master of your ministers..." Wang Ling's face was extremely pale.

Liu Bang was stunned all of a sudden, and he didn't know what to do?

"Xiang Yu'er, I arrested the old mother and forced me to surrender, but the minister did not obey, and the old mother died with a sword in order to cut off the thoughts of the Chu army.... Woo woo..., I hate that Xiang Yu Xiao'er actually cooked the remains of the old mother, and the poor old mother... Woo woo... The minister and Xiang Yu swore not to stand together, and asked the king of Han to be the master with me! Wang Ling kowtowed to Liu Bang while crying.

Liu Bang hurriedly helped Wang Ling up and said: "Brother Xian, don't worry, the widow swears to avenge his brother's deep hatred, not to mention that the widow's old father and weak wife were also arrested by him." It's just that our army is newly defeated, and we can only wait for some time, and other Japanese and Korean generals will come over and conspire together to fight again. ”

Wang Ling beat his chest, Wang Ling was a dutiful son, so he persuaded him to go back.

Looking at the back of Wang Ling leaving, Liu Bang actually felt a little happy: Brother Xiang Yu, you have sent another loyal general to the widow.

Here it is necessary to introduce the mother of Wang Ling.

Sima Qian recorded three old women who understood righteousness in the section of the Chu-Han dispute, the first was Chen Ying's mother, the second was Han Xin's drifting mother, and the third was Wang Ling's mother.

The first two old women are described above.

Wang Ling (?-181 BC), a native of Peixian, gathered thousands of people in Nanyang during the chaos at the end of Qin, and once sent troops to help the Han generals Wang Su, Xue Ou went to meet Taigong and Lu Pheasant. Xiang Yu sent troops to stop them and kidnapped his mother, in order to blackmail Wang Ling into submitting to him.

Unexpectedly, Wang Ling's mother was very backbone, she was not afraid of Xiang Yu's intimidation and threats, and even very contemptuous.

She knew Xiang Yu's intentions very well, and in order to prevent Xiang Yu from succeeding, she made up her mind to die.

But she can't die right away, she's waiting, she's patient. When Wang Ling sent messengers to visit her, she knew that the last time had come. So, she said to the envoy: "Go back and tell my son that the king of Han is a benevolent elder and will eventually get the world, and my son must follow the king of Han wholeheartedly, don't think of me." ”

After that, he shouted "Ling'er" three times to the west, and drew his sword to kill himself.

Xiang Yu was furious when he learned about it, and actually threw the remains of the queen mother into the ding to cook.

Although Wang Ling's mother is old, she understands the righteousness, and in order to prevent her son from going astray, she is mighty and unyielding, and she would rather give up her life.

It's a great kind of maternal love, and it takes tremendous courage.